1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a particle analyzing apparatus which applies light to a measurement specimen including particles flowing in a flow cell to analyze the particles using lights generated from the particles in the specimen and particle imaging method.
2. Background Art
The U.S. Pat. No. 6,133,995 discloses a particle measuring apparatus provided with a sheath flow cell which forms a specimen flow including particles enveloped by a sheath liquid, a continuum source and a pulse light source which respectively apply lights to the specimen flow, a detector which detects forward scattered light and fluorescent light generated from the particle on which the light is applied by the continuum source, and a video camera which captures an image of the particle illuminated by the light emitted from the pulse light source, wherein characteristic parameters of the particle are obtained based on signals of the forward scattered light and fluorescent light detected by the detector.
In the particle measuring apparatus, the lights respectively emitted from the continuum source and the pulse light source are applied so that they are orthogonal to each other relative to the sheath flow cell. In the particle measuring apparatus, the light from the continuum source is applied to the particle on the upstream side of the flow cell, and the light from the pulse light source is applied to the particle on the downstream side of the flow cell.
The particle measuring apparatus has a problem that its image contrast is poor in the case where the particle to be imaged is an optically transparent particle, for example, a cell.